YarnTalk

Stitches East

I enjoy looking at people are wearing at knitting conventions. Everyone is wearing their best cardigan under their Clapotis shawl or scarf from Knitty. Over 7000 Ravelry knitters are finished or almost finished working on Pamela Wynne Feburary Lady Sweater. In different yarns they look interesting and fabulous and inspirational. I had a chance to stop in and visit with Kristen, co-owner of my LYS, Modern Yarn.

List of NYC Yarn Shops!

Oct. 9-12 is the first NYC Yarn Crawl! Take a look at all the shops and yarn vendors.Watch for individual shop hours as many are closed on Monday. It seems odd that that any of the shops would be closed this Yarn Crawl 3 day weekend Monday. After this weekend, who will have money for Stitches East?

 I just spent my evening unraveling a couple of inches from my Kusha Kusha scarf from Habu, so they may not be my first stop. I am enjoying the knit, it isn't as tedious as I had expected! My rough, gardener hands are snagging up the yarn a bit. I think of it as an advance toward the felting!

LYS -- Local Yarn Store Thinks Co-op

I received this inormation by email from Modern Yarn a great shop in my town, Montclair NJ. They are looking for new ideas to go along with their new location:

Wednesday, September 23rd will be your chance to hear more about participating in Modern Yarn's Co-op...

It's at 7:30.  We'll have snacks.  We'll have drinks. And we'll need to keep our wits about us. 

Hear more about participating in Modern Yarn's Co-op...

We have some brain-storming to do!

We'll be talking about:
*How exactly participating in the co-op will work.
     -Hours
     -Benefits
     -Rules
*Different ways to work at MY
     -Retail hours
     -Sample knitting
     -Computer services
     -Teaching
     -Designing
     -New ways that we haven't even thought of yet...
*Co-op input on Modern Yarn's purchasing decisions
*Loads of other stuff we haven't even thought of yet...

Although Paige and I have thought a lot about this and think it could be a great way to run our business, we are CERTAIN that you all will have loads of
A. Great ideas
B. Questions
C. Suggestions
D. Things we haven't even thought of yet...

We hope that this will be informative, thought-provoking, and inspiring.  Most of all, we want this to be an open forum.  One of the best things about this idea (we think) is that we become a vigorous creative community with a much larger field of creative minds to draw from.

Paige and I are very excited to get this under way and hope to see loads of faces at this meeting!

We love ya!!!

Kristen and Paige

A Visit to Loop in Philadelphia

What could be better than a visit to Loop in Philadelphia? It seems too me they have more yarn in more colorways than ever! Owner Craig was in and was attentive to all who wanted help and advice.  I bought Sheep Wool 3 for the eyelet cowl patten that is free on Ravelry. Craig used the same yarn for a more complicated project! It is knitting up quickly and feels soft and not itchy. My purchase came with a cool blue bag that I will sport around town.

Hers and hers mitts.

I combined a strand of Rowan Felted Tweed with a strand of Kid Silk Haze as Patricia of Patricia's Yarn in Hoboken suggested.

I knit these mittens using an Amy Budd pattern. The cuffs are a little loose so I would have a 3 size needle difference from mitten body instead of 2. A fun, quick knit and pretty. I love the yarn of the mitts. Sure wish I could remember what it was. I improvised the mitts from the mitten pattern.

St. Patrick's Day Tribute Post: Irish Aran Cable Cardigan Sweater

There were many great Irish sweaters at the St. Patrick's parade. So many hand-loomed, store-bought patterned knits looked like they were great quality. Is it really worth all the effort to knit one myself when I can buy one, ordering by clan?

Clanarans.com sells beautiful, reasonably priced sweaters for all family member. Irish Path is a great site about all things Irish and explains that Irish don't have clans, they have Septs. They also debunked the long believed story of a fisherman lost at see found dead and identified by his sweater pattern. They claim the origin is a play from the early 1900's and the fiction involved knit socks.

Still, myth or not, I believe that fisherman knit patterns reflect different objects from life and nature. Cables? Fishermen ropes. Honeycomb pattern? Beehives. I am thinking Cascade yarn using Patons pattern, Must Have Cardigan.

Michelle did a great job on her Must Have Cardigan. If I start now, I can wear my own sweater to the 2010 parade.

Mini Maiden Silk

Mini Maiden Silk/Wool

Addis work magic with Sublime Kid Mohair

Sublime Kid Mohair shows the cable definition suprisingly well in Knitty pattern Nakiska.

Lorna's Laces Worsted pools like a cow!

Lorna's Laces is so great to work with and skeins beautifully I thought a quick cowl was in order. COWl is right! Look at the pooling! MOOOOOO!

Ford F-150 Truck loses support of KNITTERS!

Rough,tough all purpose Ford Truck new TV ad says rugged, great for hauling unless your cargo is YARN!!! No wonder they are in trouble. No bailout for Ford when they show an obvious lack of financial initiative missing the enormity of power and money in the fiber market!
Yarnprincess puts it well on her Yarn Princess blog:

I hope the Madison Avenue geniuses who created this ad never ask the knitters in their lives for hand-knit watchcaps. A big thumbs-down to Ford, and to their ad agency for continuing and promoting negative gender stereotypes.